ABSTRACT

Since its first publication, Action Research: Principles and Practice has become a key text in its field. This new updated edition clearly describes and explains the practices of action research and its underlying values, and introduces important new ideas, including:

  • all professionals should be reflective practitioners;
  • they should produce their personal theories of practice to show how they are holding themselves accountable for their educational influences in learning;
  • the stories they produce become a new people’s history of action research, with potential for influencing new futures.

This new edition has expanded in scope, to contribute to diverse fields including professional development across the sectors and the disciplines. It considers the current field, including its problems as well as its considerable hopes and prospects for new thinking and practices. Now fully updated, this book contains:

  • A wealth of case-study material
  • New chapters on the educational significance of action research
  • An overview of methodological and ethical discussion

The book is a valuable addition to the literature on research methods in education and nursing and healthcare, and professional education, and contributes to contemporary debates about the generation and dissemination of knowledge and its potential influence for wider social and environmental contexts.

Practitioners across the professions who are planning action research in their own work settings will find this book a helpful introduction to the subject while those studying on higher degree courses will find it an indispensable resource.

chapter |20 pages

Introduction

part |66 pages

What do we know?

chapter |15 pages

What do we know?

The principles of action research

chapter |16 pages

How do we come to know?

Linking theory and practice

chapter |18 pages

Who has influenced our thinking?

Key theorists in action research

chapter |15 pages

What do we need to know?

Exercising educational influence

part |44 pages

What do we do with our knowledge?

chapter |15 pages

How do we do action research?

Planning and doing a project

chapter |12 pages

Practical issues

part |42 pages

How do we share our knowledge?

chapter |12 pages

Testing the validity of knowledge claims

chapter |14 pages

Judging quality and demonstrating impact

The significance of your action research

part |28 pages

How do we use our knowledge?

part |7 pages

Hopes and prospects

chapter |6 pages

Whither action research?